This year, our activities will continue, but will inevitably be viewed through the prism of the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the onset of the pandemic, our members’ products have seen strong demand, initially in China and now increasingly in Europe and the rest of the world. Respiratory assistance devices (ventilators), patient monitoring systems, portable X-ray equipment, ultrasound equipment and computed tomography (CT) have all been played important roles in providing the response to the outbreak. In addition, our global companies have adjusted their supply priorities to meet this increasing demand.
In March, we established the dedicated COCIR COVID-19 Information Centre, which acted as an update centre for our activities and as a repository for publications and public statements published by COCIR and COCIR members on their contributions to dealing with the pandemic.
In March, the European Commission announced that it would postpone the Date of Application for the Medical Device Regulation by a year, a development we welcomed. You can read more on our response here.
In other, non-COVID-19 related activities, at our General Assembly in May - a virtual event due to the coronavirus crisis - saw Dr Bernt Bieber of Siemens Healthineers succeeds Dr Jan Kimpen of Philips as COCIR President. Click here for press release. We look forward to working with him.
During European Week Against Cancer, we ran a social media campaign on the invaluable contribution of all our technologies in the common fight against cancer. In addition we submitted our contribution to the European Commission’s public consultation on its Beating Cancer Plan.
We were also pleased to launch our COCIR 'Call for action: Ensuring cancer treatment in times of COVID-19' and to publish our statement on the 'EU recovery plan: a welcome move and an opportunity to shape the future of health and healthcare'.
Also, on the topic of cancer care, we have planned a series of events with key stakeholders and policymakers designed to ensure we optimize the use of innovations while hoping to contribute to the revision of existing guidelines on screening or recommendations for various types of cancer.
Undoubtedly, there will be more news in what will continue to be a challenging year.
Nicole Denjoy
June 2020